Monodic electronic musical instrument manually playable without depression of keys



United States Patent Inventor Georges Jenny Paris, France Appl. No. 769,220 Filed Oct. 21, 1968 Patented Dec. 8, 1970 Assignee Societe a Responsabllite Limitee dite:

i ONDIOLINE Quessigny Eure, France a corporation of France Priority Oct. 25, 1967, Oct. 3, 1968 France Nos. 1257685 and 168588 MONODIC ELECTRONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT MANUALLY PLAYABLE WITHOUT DEPRESSION OF KEYS 19 Claims, 4 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl. 84/ 1.01, 84/ l .02 Int. Cl. (11041 15/00;

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[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,530,251 11/1950 Luberoff 84/1 .02X 2,905,905 9/1959 George 84/1.01X 2,962,922 12/1960 Cutler et a1. 8,4/1.0l 3,247,111 1 4/1966 Jenny 84/1 .19

Primary Examiner-W. E. Ray At!orney Karl F. Ross ABSTRACT: A keyboard of an electronic musical instrument consists of a set of conductive plaques connected to respective taps on a voltage divider which forms part of the tuning circuit of an audio frequency oscillator, the tuning circuit being completed upon the touching of any plaque by a metal bar or other mobile conductor connected to potential whereby the oscillator generates a note of a pitch corresponding to the selected plaque.

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8 s8 g (Km R9 Attorney MONODIC ELECTRONIC MUSICAL XNSTRUMENT MANUALLY PLAYABLE WITHOUT DEPRESSION F KEYS My present invention relates to an electronic musical instrument ofthe monodic type, i.e. an instrument for electronically generating a succession of individual notes of the scale to produce amelody.

Electronic musical instruments are known in which the keys ofa keyboard can be depressed by a player to control an oscil lator whose tuning depends on the depressed keys to produce a corresponding note. Reference 'may be made in this connection to my prior US. Pat. No. 3,2 17,31 l.

The object of the present invention is to provide an instru ment of this general type in which the need for physically depressing a succession of keys is eliminated, the generation ofa tone requiring merely the touching ofa key with a rod or other simple implement or, in'a more specific case, with the fingers of the player through the intermediary ofa deformable element, thereby simplifying the mechanical construction of the keyboard and making the players performance independent of key inertia and of the-forces of restoring springs. Thus, the invention aims at providing an instrument that is less costly and can be handled with greater facility than comparable instruments of the prior art. 1

in accordance with this invention, the keyboard of the instrument consists of a multiplicity of mutually insulated conductive plaques connected to different frequency-controlling impedances, specifically to different taps of a voltage divider forming part ofa normally open tuning circuit of an electronic oscillator, a terminal of a source of operating voltage for said oscillator being connected to one or more mobile conductors adapted to be placed in contact with any one ofsaid plaques to generate a musical note characteristic of the respective plaque.

More specifically, the plaques may be metallic zones applied by printed circuit technique to a dielectric support.

More specifically, each-mobile conductor may be in the form of a rod with a sphericalhead and with a flexible connection leading to the aforementioned source terminal, the rod being easily gripped by the hand of the player who then touches the desired plaque with the spherical head; two such conductors, held by the two hands of the player, may be used for generating the notes in rapid succession, in a manner reminiscent of the playing of a Xylophone or Vibraphone.

According to another feature of my invention, the mobile conductor may be in the form of a flexible sheet, preferably a fabric of metallic or metalliz ed filaments, adapted tobe locally deflected toward the underlying plaques by the fingers of the player; the fabric or other conductive sheet should be sufficiently transparent to reveal the outlines of the plaques.

The above and other features will be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

H6. 1 is a diagrammatic plan view of a keyboard and associated circuitry of an electronic instrument embodying the invention;

FlG. 2 shows a modification of the keyboard drawn to a larger scale;

FIG 3 is another view similar to FIG. 1, illustrating a further modification; and

FIG. 4 is'a perspective view of a keyboard and an associated sheet carrier forming part of another embodiment.

ln HQ. 1, there has been illustrated a dielectric support on which white keys l0 l2, l4 alternate with "black" keys,

9, ll, 13 of an array resembling a conventional keyboard ofa piano, accordion or similar instrument. The keys 8-14 are conductive plaques deposited by printed circuit technique on the support 15 with small mutual separation so as to be galvanically insulated from one another. These keys are connected to respective taps on a voltage divider which could also be of the printed circuit type and which consists of a series of resistances 2. 3, 4. 5. 6, 7 illustrated only in part. An'audio frequency oscillator 1 comprises a unijunction transistor 50 with a first base connected through a fixed resistance 51 to ground, a second base connected to positive potential through a variable tuning resistance 52, and an emitter which is connected to ground through a condenser 53 and is further connected to section 2 of voltage divider 27 through another variable resistance 54 also serving for the tuning of the instrument. Two conductive bars 16, 17 of the aforedescribed rodand-sphere type are connected over flexible wires l6, R7 to positive potential and, with their spherical heads l6" and i7", may be placed in contact with any one of keys 8-l4 etc. to complete an RC circuit consisting of the condenser 53 and of one or more sections of the voltage divider 2-'/, the amount of resistance thus connected across the condensers determining the operating frequency of the oscillator l and therefore the pitch of the note produced upon application of the oscillator output to a loudspeaker 57 by way ofa transformer 55 and a conventional amplifier 56 which may include the usual gain control means for varying the volume, The amplifier and loudspeaker could form part ofa radio receiver whose housing also accommodates the oscillator l, the latter energizing the ampli fier in parallel, through another transformer 55", with the output of the high frequency and detector stages (not shown) of the receiverso that the notes generated by the instrument can be superimposed upon a musical program coming in over the receiver; similarly, the output of a phonograph, tape recorder or other source of canned music could be combined with that of oscillator l in a common amplifier and loudspeaker.

if the bars 16, 17 simultaneously touch two different keys, or if either of these bars bridges a pair of adjoining keys, only the key associated with the highest note (i.e. the one connected to' the tap closestfto the emitter of the unijunction transistor 50) will be effective to tune the oscillator. if either of these bars is run along the keyboard, a glissando effect is produced, with progressively higher or lower notes blending smoothly into one another.

In the modified arrangement of FIG. 2, the keys 8-12 are shown formed with parallel rearward extensions 8, 9, 10', ll, 12' alongside and between which there are disposed auxiliary conductive strips 18 24 connected to intermediate points of the voltage divider. With the frequency separation of successive keys 8, 9, 10 etc. amounting to half-steps or seminotes, the frequency intervals afforded by the auxiliary conductors l824 may correspond to fractions of, say, onetenth or one-twentieth of a-whole step, depending on the number of strips available. Again, the strips l8-24 may be formed as printed metallic zones on the dielectric support 15 (FIG. 1). As further shown in FIG. 2, the voltage divider may be constituted by a coating 58 oflimited electrical conductivity, e.g. a thin layer of vapor-deposited carbon, overlying the ends of the key extensions 812 and of the auxiliary strips l8-24 within a terminal zone B, leaving exposed a zone A in which these elements are freely accessible for engagementby the mobile conductors l6, 17 of FIG. 1. Proper tuning is accomplished by a suitable choice of the width and/or thickness of layer 58. The musician, using the bars 16 and 17, may thus sweep either across the white" keys 8, 10 etc. at the forward edge of the keyboard, across the white and black" keys 8, 9, 10, ll etc. further inwardly, or across the thin parallel strips 8-l2 ,,,-24 of zone A to produce different glissando effects comparable to those produced on the piano, the violin or the musical saw.

To distinguish between the white and the black" keys,

the former may be silver plated while the latter are gold plated, for example.

if desired, a metal wire 59 may be stretched across the parallel conductor strips in zone A and may be connectedto the positive terminal of the source of operating voltage to enable the creation of a glissando effect by a player running his fingers along that wire, successively deflecting it into contact with the juxtaposed strips.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, a keyboard here constituted by a series of keys 25, 26, 27 and 28 may be provided with markings simulating a musical staff together with, for example, a treble clef and conventional symbols identifying the different notes of the seven-tone scale over a range here extending over two octaves. These markings may be formed by engraving a conductive foil initially placed on the insulating support (FIG. 1), prior to the removal of portions of that foil to separate the various key-forming plaques from one another. The voltage divider is here shown to consist of a series of resistance sections 29, 30, 31, 32 similar to those of FIG. 1, the extreme right-hand section 29 being again connected through an adjustable resistance 54 to an emitter 33 of a unijunction transistor 50. The tuning circuit of the oscillator also includes a capacitive branch here shown to comprise a plurality of condensers 34, 35, 36, any one of which can be effectively connected across the transistor input by the insertion of a plug 37 into a corresponding jack 34, 35 or 36.

With the values of resistors 2932 etc. so chosen as to generate the natural notes of the scale whenever condenser 34 is connected in circuit, the other condensers 35, 36 may be used to shift the notes indicated on the staff by semitone increments whereby, with 12 such condensers, transposition to any of the 11 other majors or minors from C-major or A-minor is automatically obtained.

One of the bases of the unijunction transistor 50 is connected to positive potential (here of 9 volts) through a series of resistors 38, 39, 40, resistors 38 and 39 being adjustable for tuning purposes whereas resistor 40 is a distributed resistance element, e.g. a carbon strip, having an intermediate point 41 connected to the bars 16 and 17 through the flexible wires 16, 17. Resistance 40 is so dimensioned that a short-circuiting of either section thereof. as by a touching of the head 17" of bar 17 to its left-hand or its right-hand end, will raise or lower the pitch of the selected note (corresponding to the key concurrently contacted by the other bar 16) by a half-step to produce either sharps or flats, with corresponding transposition in the event of replacement of condenser 34 by one of the other condenser 35, 36 etc. A modulating effect or tremolo may be produced by sweeping the bar 17 back and forth across resistance element 40 in the vicinity of point 41. Adjustment of resistors 38 and 39 enables precise tuning ofthe instrument to, usually, a pitch of 440 c.p.s. for the note a produced by contacting the corresponding key 28a with the bar 16 upon insertion of plug 37 into the jack 34.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, a keyboard constituted by a series of keys 43 is overlain by a flexible sheet in the form ofa fabric screen 44 consisting of conductive filaments, the screen being received in a rectangular metal frame 42 resting on the keyboard support. Owing to the presence of the intersecting conductive threads, two or more portions of the screen may be depressed concurrently or in rapid succession by the fingers of the player, as illustrated at 45 and 46, without deflecting intervening parts of the screen toward the underlying conductive plaques 43. With the screen again connected to positive potential in the manner illustrated for bars 16 and 17 in FIG. 1 or FIG. 3, such temporary deformation of the fabric again completes the tuning circuit of the associated oscillator to generate the selected note. The threads should, of course, be sufficiently elastic to restore the flat shape of the screen as soon as the fingers of the player are lifted therefrom. They could consist, for example, of metallized textile fibers or strips of conductive rubber. The frame 42 may rest on the support 15 through the intermediary of a resilient cushion, such as foam rubber strips 47 adhering to the undersides of the frame member. In this way, less deformation of the screen 44 is required to contact the underlying keys which, again, may be conductive elements ofa printed circuit. The screen should be sufficiently loosely woven to permit a viewing of the outlines of these keys.

The oscillator associated with the keyboard of FIG. 4 may be similar to that of the preceding FIGS. and may be tunable in the manner previously described.

The resistances 2--7 and 29-32 of FIGS. 1 and 3 are representative of any set of impedances (e.g. condensers such as those of FIG. 3) forming part ofa normally open tuning circuit to be completed upon the contacting of an associated conductive element (8-44, 25-28, 43) by a mobile conductor such as bars l6, 17, wire 58 or sheet 44. While the mobile conductors-have been shown connected to positive voltage, it will be apparent that the same could also be inserted at some other point in the tuning circuit, e.g. between the voltage divider and ground.

Iclaim:

l. A musical instrument comprising:

oscillator means for selectively generating oscillations of different frequencies corresponding to the pitch of different notes of a musical scale, said oscillator means being provided with a normally open tuning circuit including a multiplicity of frequency-controlling impedances;

a multiplicity of conductive elements respectively connected to said impedances; and

mobile conductor means connected in said tuning circuit for completing same upon contacting any one of said conductive elements to generate a frequency corresponding to the pitch of a musical note individually assigned to the respective conductive element.

2. An instrument as defined in claim 1 wherein said im pedances are sections of a voltage divider, said tuning circuit including capacitive means connected across said voltage divider.

3. An instrument as defined in claim 2 wherein said oscillator means includes a transistor with an input electrode connected to an extremity of said voltage divider.

4. An instrument as defined in claim 2 wherein said conductive elements are plaques simulating the keys of a musical keyboard.

5. An instrument as defined in claim 4 wherein said plaques are provided with parallel and spaced-apart extensions leading to respective taps of said voltage divider, said taps being so located along the voltage divider as to give rise to oscillations separated by semitone steps, further comprising auxiliary conductive strips connected to intermediate points on the voltage divider between said taps and located between said extensions for selective engagement by said mobile conductor means.

6. An instrument as defined in claim 5 wherein said voltage divider comprises a layer of limited electrical conductivity partly covering said extensions and conductive strips.

7. An instrument as defined in claim 5 wherein said mobile conductor means includes a metal wire stretched across said extensions and conductive strips for selective deflection toward them.

8. An instrument as defined in claim 4 wherein said plaques are conductive zones of a printed circuit on an insulating support.

9. An instrument as defined in claim 8 wherein said zones are divided into two interleaved groups of plaques distinctively colored by different metal platings.

10. An instrument as defined in claim 4 wherein said plaques carry visible markings symbolizing a musical staff.

11. An instrument as defined in claim 2 wherein said sections are dimensioned to give rise to frequencies corresponding to the notes of a seven-tone scale over at least one octave, further comprising additional circuitry for varying the tuning of said oscillator means by semitones.

12. An instrument as defined in claim 11 wherein said capacitive means comprises a plurality of condensers, said additional circuitry including switch means for individually connecting any one ofsaid condensers across said voltage divider.

13. An instrument as defined in claim 11 wherein said additional circuitry comprises an elongate resistance element in said tuning circuit, said mobile conductor means being connected to an intermediate point of said resistance element for partly short-circuiting the latter by touching either extremity thereof.

14. An instrument as defined in claim 1 wherein said mobile conductor means comprises at least one rod provided with an enlarged head and with a flexible connection to a source of operating voltage for said oscillator means.

18. An instrument as defined in claim 15 wherein said sheet is provided with a generally rectangular frame, said conductive elements being provided with a nonconductive support carrying said frame.

19. An instrument as defined in claim 18, further comprising a resilient cushion interposed between said frame and said support. 

